U.S. backs off new overtime rule; NNA seeks survey participants

August 8, 2017

The new labor secretary has just announced that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulation setting the salary base for exempt employees at $47,476 will not be enforced. This is good news for California newspapers.

The salary threshold for exempt employees under California law is slightly lower than the proposed FLSA amount. At the existing minimum wage of $10.50 an hour (due to reach $11 in January 2018) for employers of 26 or more employees, California’s salary threshold is $43,680 or twice the annual minimum wage. For employers of 25 or less, the salary threshold for exempt employees is $41,600 based on the existing minimum wage of $10 an hour (due to reach $10.50 in January 2018).

With this announcement, California newspapers will not have to lay off staff, reassign personnel or take other administrative measures to comply with the higher federal threshold.

The National Newspaper Association (NNA) is gathering information about newspaper workplaces throughout the nation it hopes to use as evidence to discourage the Department of Labor from implementing a salary threshold that has a substantial negative impact on the newspaper industry. As part of its information-collection efforts, NNA is asking newspapers to spend a few moments to take this survey.

If you have any questions about how the survey responses will be used or want more information about NAA’s efforts, please contact NNA’s Lynne Lance at (217) 241-1400.